


'Cause I could never set you free

by aureshadow



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Camellia-Peony War (Avatar), Childhood Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fire Nation (Avatar), Fire Nation Politics (Avatar), Rivals to Lovers, Saowon Clan (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29233809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aureshadow/pseuds/aureshadow
Summary: And suddenly Ty Lee was clinging to her and Mai held her as her sobs slowly subsisted.Mother wouldn’t like this,Mai thought.At least for this moment, Ty Lee has fallen out of favor. The smart thing would be to side with the Princess, to take advantage of my competitor’s misfortune and help the Princess against her.(Mai was eight.)~~~Princess Azula chooses Mai and Ty Lee as her friends when they're six. They're not supposed to like each other - they're supposed to compete. Mai's family is new money, and competes with Ty Lee's family for the Fire Lord's favor. Ty Lee's father distrusts Mai's father, descended from the Saowon clan which fell from grace many years ago.Written for Winter ATLA Femslash Week Day 4 - Childhood Friends
Relationships: Azula & Mai & Ty Lee, Azula & Mai (Avatar), Azula & Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai & Michi (Avatar), Mai & Ty Lee (Avatar), Mai & Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Ty Lee & her Family (Avatar)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22
Collections: Winter ATLA Femslash Week 2021





	'Cause I could never set you free

When they were six, Princess Azula announced, “Mai and Ty Lee are my friends now.” They were six. And of course they agreed.

Mai knew Ty Lee as the Ty sister who was just a little sadder than the others. It was hard to catch, underneath that bubbly, smiling exterior, but there was something about that girl that felt trapped. Mai knew that feeling.

Ty Lee knew Mai as the quiet girl with sharp eyes who paid attention to everything. Mai was the only nonbender their first-grade combat instructor took seriously.

~~~

“The Princess chose you as your companion?” exclaimed Mai’s mother. “That’s delightful! You must stay by her side, and always do what she says. It could help your father’s career.”

“Yes, Mother,” Mai replied.

“And make sure she likes you more than that Ty girl. You know her family is old money. You know they don’t like us. Don’t trust her, do you understand me?”

“Yes, Mother.”

~~~

“Why does _Ty Lee_ get to play with the Fire Princess?” complained Ty Liu.

“Because Azula chose her, sweetheart,” replied their father. “Now listen, Ty Lee. The Princess is following in her father’s footsteps by lending favor to the Saowon idiots.”

“You mean Mai?” asked Ty Lee.

“Ukano Saowon’s daughter? Yes. We may not be allowed to refer to the old clans anymore, but don’t forget how the Saowon clan fell out of favor.”

“They-- they committed treason?”

“Yes. The Camellia-Peony War. Two hundred ninety-five years before Sozin’s Comet, they paid an Earth Kingdom dirt-eater to assault Fire Nation officials, vandalize the palace, and commit foul deeds to put Chaejin of the Saowon clan onto the throne. _Thousands_ of people could’ve died because of their treachery,” he said. “Fire Lord Ozai may have forgotten this, but we will not. The Saowon are rich again, but they are new money. You _must_ compete with Mai Saowon. You must beat her.”

~~~

Azula seemed to enjoy the awkwardness between her two new companions. Even then, she could read people well: the way Mai and Ty Lee wanted to like each other. The way they couldn’t.

~~~

When they were eight, the Princess and Mai and Ty Lee were cartwheeling during recess. No one else was invited. Mai and Ty Lee were Azula’s friends.

(Mai wasn’t any good at cartwheeling. Princess Azula liked to laugh at her form, liked to laugh when she fell.)

But Ty Lee was. She cartwheeled better than Azula. She stuck her landing and stood up tall, grinning. And that was okay, because they were friends, right? Surely Azula would smile, would applaud her and say _Wow, Ty Lee! That’s amazing!_

But something flashed over Azula’s face - something like bitterness. Something like fear. “You _idiot,_ Ty Lee!” Azula pushed her subordinate-friend to the ground and stomped away.

Ty Lee cried. Ty Lee never cried. 

~~~

Mai approached her not-friend slowly. “Ty... Ty Lee?”

Ty Lee didn't push her away.

~~~

Mai took her not-friend behind the pine trees on the edge of the playground. “So no one stares,” she said. 

And suddenly Ty Lee was clinging to her and Mai held her as her sobs slowly subsisted. _Mother wouldn’t like this,_ Mai thought. _At least for this moment, Ty Lee has fallen out of favor. The smart thing would be to side with the Princess, to take advantage of my competitor’s misfortune and help the Princess against her._

(Mai was eight.)

“Thank you, Mai,” said Ty Lee. _I shouldn’t have accepted her comfort,_ she thought. _I shouldn’t have angered the Princess in the first place._

Still, Ty Lee loved acrobatics. In the future, there would be times where she couldn’t help herself. In the future, Azula would push her and she wouldn’t cry. It was just teasing. It was all in good fun.

~~~

It was okay that her chosen companions no longer seemed to be directly competing with each other, Azula reasoned. It was okay that Azula wanted them to be happy. It was okay that Azula wanted to be happy with them. 

They weren’t a threat, they never would be. 

In fact, having Mai and Ty Lee at ease with each other might be beneficial for all of them. Without the discord between them, the trio could work better as a cohesive unit. Azula could trust them to work together on her behalf. And Azula would keep them in line - she was the Princess. She had her rank. When it came down to it, Mai and Ty Lee would never choose each other over her.

~~~

“A _zu_ la!” Ty Lee complained, all playfulness and lightness. She didn’t have the right to be actually offended - the Princesses’s only retaliation was a push. Even if Azula hadn’t stuck her landing, Ty Lee couldn’t resist the handspring. Couldn’t resist the double back. She had no right to outshine the Princess. After all, they were in the courtyard of the Fire Palace. This was Azula’s home court more than ever.

Mai didn’t have to play anymore. Azula was fine with it. Ty Lee liked acrobatics, Mai didn’t. Mai’s skillset was just as useful. Even if seeing Mai mess up made Azula feel secure, it was clear she didn’t like it.

~~~

Ty Lee and Azula laughed together as Mai sat in the fountain, glaring at them. 

Ty Lee was fine with the fact that Mai liked Zuko. She was fine with Mai looking at the Fire Prince and blushing. She was fine that Mai didn’t like her.

“See, I told you it would work!” Azula crowed.

“Aw, they’re so cute together.” They were. Ty Lee was fine that it wasn’t her. It was fine.

~~~

Mai wasn’t.

“You guys are such - _ugh!_ ”

Mai’s cheeks burned. The looks on her friends’ face - triumphant and teasing and mortifying. She should’ve known better, known that the two people she wanted to trust the most, Ty Lee and Zuko, were too intertwined with her best friend, her princess, her superior. 

Of course Mai should’ve expected that from the Princess. Of course she should’ve expected that from Ty Lee, even if Ty Lee didn’t enjoy mean-spirited pranks, even if Ty Lee was kind-hearted and cheerful and sweet.

Azula was a master at reading people, but she didn’t catch the look of guilt that flitted across Ty Lee’s face. 

(It was the first time she’d felt guilty about siding with the Princess.)

~~~

Ty Lee’s family had seen the Dalian Circus Troupe perform once, and Ty Lee visited their shows many times after. Each time, something in her heart sang. She _knew_ she was meant to be up there, in front of the crowd. 

Each time, something in her heart ached.

~~~

Mai got out of the fountain. Princess Ursa called Azula away; something about a letter from General Iroh.

(The princess wasn’t looking.) Ty Lee got her coat. “You can. . . you can use this to dry off,” Ty Lee told Mai. “I wish I could use firebending, but. . .” she gestured vaguely.

(If Ty Lee could firebend, Azula wouldn’t have chosen her.)

Mai took it. “Won’t your parents ask why it’s wet?”

“I’ll tell them I dropped it in the fountain.” 

Mai was silent.

(The princess wasn’t looking.) “Mai? I’m sorry. For doing that with Azula. For doing that to you.”

“Thanks.”

~~~

Ty Lee was twelve, and Mai was thirteen. Prince Zuko had been banished for one year. Princess Azula had no sibling to be worse than her for one year.

“I want to run away,” Ty Lee told Mai one day. “I want to join the Dalian Circus Troupe. I’ve talked with the performers. They’re holding auditions soon. I know I’ll get in.” School had just let out, and Mai was waiting for her escort home. The only other place she would be allowed to see her friends was the Fire Palace, when the Princess invited her.

 _Of course she does,_ thought Mai. _She doesn’t show it, but she’s as trapped as I am._

“Wouldn’t your parents be able to track you down? I’m sure they have connections to the Dalian Circus somehow.”

“I doubt they’ll even care. They have six other girls left, anyway.”

Mai said nothing. _So you’ll leave me?_ she didn’t say. _So you’ll leave me alone with the Princess and my suffocating parents?_

“I should come with you,” Mai joked. “I know they don’t take knife-throwers, but I’ll threaten them into making an exception.” 

Both girls laughed.

~~~

Ty Lee left.

~~~

“So. Ty Lee’s run away,” said Azula. Mai had been invited over to the palace - Azula had stopped attending the Royal Fire Academy For Girls to play a bigger role in the war. “She says the circus is her calling.”

Mai said nothing.

“First my silly brother is banished, and then my chi-blocker runs away from home. And you’re going to leave in a few years too, Mai. My father is considering gifting a nice Earth Kingdom city to your father.”

“Whatever.”

Mai didn’t comment on how lonely she knew her princess was, how there was no more failure-of-a-brother to divert the Fire Lord’s attention. Azula didn’t comment on Mai’s buried grief.

Zuko was gone. Ty Lee was gone.

Maybe Mai hadn’t loved Ty Lee enough. Maybe if she’d given her friend the support she deserved, Ty Lee would’ve stayed.

Maybe if Ty Lee’s idiot parents had treated their daughter right, she would’ve stayed.

Maybe if Mai had realized earlier how much she loved Ty Lee’s smile and her laugh and the way she flipped her braid she would’ve stayed. Maybe if Mai realized earlier how much she loved the way Ty Lee hugged people and cared for people and her passion for acrobatics, she would’ve stayed.

Mai wanted to hold Ty Lee’s hand. Mai wanted to kiss her. 

It was entirely selfish of Mai to think of such things. It was entirely selfish of Mai to even miss her friend. She wasn’t allowed to feel such emotions, any more than she’d been allowed to grieve for the banished prince. 

In the Fire Nation, men didn’t love other men. Women didn’t love other women. Quiet, knife-throwing girls descended from the Saowon clan didn’t love chi-blocking girls from old money families. 

No one saw Mai cry.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! Comments and feedback always appreciated 💚


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